Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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10. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide an update on foot of his recent trade mission to China on the potential for seafood exports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43012/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On 5 November, following a meeting with Chinese Vice Minister Niu Dun who has responsibility for Fisheries, I was privilaged to open the largest ever Irish pavilion at the China Fisheries Show in Qingdao, the second largest trade show globally for the international seafood sector. An estimated 25,000 visitors from 100 nations were forecast to attend the show, with no other exhibition of its type in Asia coming close to matching its size or success. When the inaugural China Seafood and Fisheries Expo was held in 1996, China's total international seafood trade was worth under €3 billion. In 2013, China's seafood trade had surpassed €20 billion in value, cementing China's position as the world's leading seafood trading country. Growing incomes and increased urbanisation in the world’s second biggest economy have helped fuel a massive growth in demand for imported seafood. The United Nations FAO predicts that China will need an extra 16 million metric tons of seafood by 2020 to meet this growing demand from a swelling middle class, which is expected to reach 500 million by 2020.

Irish seafood exports to China & Hong Kong grew by an impressive 46% in 2013 to reach €17 million. China continues to be a growing market for Irish seafood and is currently our tenth largest export market, demonstrating value growth of over 300% between 2011 to 2013. This strong trend in Irish exports to the region is continuing in 2014 with sales for the first 6 months of 2014 up 56% compared to the same period in 2013.

Whilst traditionally the Chinese market has been important for the Irish seafood industry predominantly for the sale of pelagic species, in the last 3 years significant effort has been invested by Irish processors and Bord Bia to identify and develop opportunities for premium shellfish in this growing market for seafood, notably for shellfish such as live and processed brown crab, langoustines, scallops and razor fish. Considerable success has been secured by a number of the leading Irish shellfish processors in penetrating this market, as demonstrated by the strong growth in the value of exports to the region. Exports of shellfish to China, for example, increased in value by 201% between 2012 and 2013 and by 117% to Hong Kong during the same period.

As the demand for premium seafood in China continues to grow and Chinese consumption of aquatic products continues to outpace growth in production of such products, Ireland is well placed to capitalise on the growing opportunity for Irish seafood in this market. Through the offices of Bord Bia, Ireland has ambitious plans to further grow the share of Irish seafood into China and has a number of programmes in place to assist Irish seafood processors in identifying, profiling and targeting new customers that are willing to pay a premium for quality seafood from Ireland.